


Wish We'd Been 'Caught In The Rain'

by SilverLynxx



Category: The Greatest Showman (2017)
Genre: Cute, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Pre-Relationship, TGS Bingo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:54:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27806383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverLynxx/pseuds/SilverLynxx
Summary: Lettie had known many,manyfools in her life, but none quite like those two.
Relationships: P. T. Barnum/Phillip Carlyle
Comments: 1
Kudos: 51
Collections: TGS Bingo





	Wish We'd Been 'Caught In The Rain'

Lettie had known many fools in her time. Fools that thought themselves clever. Fools that thought themselves invincible. And, worst of all, fools that thought themselves better. But never in Lettie’s life had she ever met fools quite like the two standing in front of her now.

“What _on earth_ have you been up to?” She exclaims, aghast by the sight of the ringmasters dressed up smart in their work attire and absolutely _drenched._

They’d returned to the circus causing such a commotion that Lettie had heard them from as far as backstage, their raised voices making it easy for herself and several others to find the men storming through the tent, looking close to shoving each other as they went. 

It had only taken that single incredulous question to bring the men up short, shifting uncomfortably in their water-logged clothing and glaring silently at their shoes like castigated schoolboys.

“Well? You look like you’ve been caught in a downpour.” She pauses, and her nose wrinkles as the unpleasant odour clinging to the sodden men suddenly reaches her. “Oh sweet lord. You smell like you were hauled in by a trawler.” 

Phillip purses his lip, and Lettie doesn’t miss the pointed look he shoots Phineas through strands of chestnut hair she’s never seen in such a state, loose and side-swept as it is. Phineas in return tips his chin up indignantly, refusing to meet anyone’s eye. 

After a heavy pause in which Phillip begins to noticeably shiver, Lettie finally sighs in defeat.

“A’right, if that’s how you’re both going to be. I’ll get some things sent to your office, just try not to drip everywhere.” 

With a curt nod, Phineas stalks off, leaving Phillip glaring half-heartedly after him.

“Thanks, Lettie,” he mumbles sullenly. She waves him off with a sympathetic look as he follows his partner, arms tightly crossed over his chest to retain some semblance of warmth. 

Even with the rare tension between them, it endears her still to watch Phineas pause at the bottom of the stairs to their office, checking to make sure Phillip isn’t far behind him.

**\---**

It’s while she’s approaching the office sometime later with an armful of towels that Lettie hears the muffled bickering of an ongoing argument. Rolling her eyes, she shunts the door open with her hip and has to bite back a smile at the resulting cry of _“Lettie!”_ accompanied by the splashing of water.

“Oh, pipe down, Carlyle, you’ve not got anything I haven’t seen before,” she chides. The young man blushes hotly, hunching over even further in the tin bathtub she’d had Demetri bring up for them to wash up in. 

Phineas, already washed and dried, snickers from his place by the stove, and Lettie rounds on him next with an energy both fierce and maternal. “And you,” she says with a pointed finger, “stop antagonising him.” 

Phineas straightens in surprise at the scolding, his mouth moving for a few speechless seconds before he snaps it shut with an affronted look. 

“Now, either of you want to tell me how you both got soaked to your curlies in sea water?” 

_“Lettie,”_ Phillip grimaces.

“Don’t be such a prude,” she returns with a roll of her eyes, her cheeks full with the breadth of her playful smile. She knew full well Phillip wasn’t the strait-laced stickler many had pegged him to be in the beginning, but there was still the odd quirk of his gentile upbringing that was as endearing as it was amusing to her. Besides, it was unlikely he’d ever thought he’d find himself having an impromptu scrub in his office in a repurposed elephant trough. 

She looks between them as Phillip tentatively returns to scrubbing the lingering smell from his skin, the wash cloth modestly submerged and his eyes trained on the rim of the basin. Phineas crosses his arms and turns back to the stove, lips pressed into a tight line. 

“Well?”

Phineas sighs. “We decided to walk back along the harbour after our meeting downtown, and we just so happened to pass by a vessel with a rather rowdy bunch of sailors on board.”

Lettie finds her usual smile mitigated by concern. “Did something happen? Were you hurt?” She asks with renewed concern, and Phineas makes a reassuring gesture. 

“We’re fine,” Phineas assures. “It was just the usual heckling and nonsense, asking if we’d ‘like to take a dip’,” he snorts. 

“Only _someone_ decided to call their bluff,” Phillip grumpily cuts in.

Lettie looks at Phineas with an expression that must say it all as the ringmaster huffs and drops down onto the couch, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’ll admit, they were more willing to follow through with their threat than I’d anticipated…”

Phillip mutters under his breath, and Lettie looks to him expectantly, but the younger remains glaring dourly into the bathwater. 

“Oh don’t mind him,” Phineas says with a dismissive wave. “He’s just upset because they called him a pretty boy.”

“You didn’t have to _agree_ with them,” Phillip protests with more than a little petulance. Phineas laughs openly, and even Lettie can’t stifle her giggles when Phillip throws his washcloth across the room and misses Phineas by a good several feet. 

“Alright, I’ll leave you two to it, but please play nicely, children,” she scolds fondly as she makes her way to the door. She sidles out of the room and pulls the door closed behind her, but leaves it cracked so she can peer through the gap remaining, her curiosity getting the better of her.

She can hear Phineas moving around on his side of the room, but her attention is on Phillip, who crosses his forearms on the rim of the basin and observes Phineas’ approach. The older man stops just within arm’s reach of the bath.

“So, do you really think I’m pretty?” Phillip asks with a playful, teasing grin. Phineas chuckles, handing the man his washcloth, but it doesn’t escape Lettie’s notice how the elder man averts his eyes almost shyly.

“You certainly have a charm about you, I won’t deny that,” he rumbles with a smirk.

“As if you could,” Phillip snorts, sharing a grin with his partner. 

Closing the door quietly behind her, she laughs to herself as she shuffles away.

Lettie had known many, _many_ fools in her life, but none quite like those two.


End file.
